Day Thirteen: Swimming with dolphins and hanging with albatrosses on the Kaikoura coast

We spent two nights in Kaikoura. Exactly two weeks later, the second biggest earthquake (since records began) hit the South Island. At 7.8 it was bigger than Christchurch, but as the epicentre was not in a populated area, much less damage and death occurred.

But we only had the problem of rain, rain and more rain. In the morning we went out on an albatross spotting boat.

Yes, they really were that close. A couple of them came on deck at one point! Here's a Salvin's Mollymawk Albatross.




And a Southern Royal Albatross:

 

A Sooty (Where's Sweep?!) Shearwater comes in for a landing. I like how they walk on the water...

The Mollymawk has a kind of sooty-looking head!

A Giant Petrel: you can see how they are related to dinosaurs!

I will have to figure out who this is from my notes later!

Squabbling over the free grub...

These guys had a big fight:

A Fairy Prion coming in for a landing...

More squabbles:

Fishermen's friends:

We saw some dozing New Zealand Seals too...

So, the Albatross Encounter cruise was in the morning, and after lunch we had a free afternoon. Some chose to go out to encounter more albatrosses but I decided to go swimming with dolphins. No one else from our group was game. You were kitted up in a full cold-water wet suit: gloves, socks, jacket, hood... Sorry folks, no photos!

But also, alas, I have no photos of the experience either! We were told to leave our cameras in the cabin of the boat for our first few dives. The whole thing was pretty chaotic. There were six of us: two couples and a Chinese guy who was accompanied by his entire family (fully clothed, a sister or girlfriend was in an evening gown and the mother spent most of the time on deck with her head in a sick bucket) who were constantly taking photos (except for the puking mother). When they said go, you had to jump in the freezing cold water, and the first two times the dolphins swam away before we could see anything!

However the next four times they swam around and beneath us, but so fast that even if I had my camera I doubt I would have caught anything. They were tiny (or tiny for dolphins) Dusky Dolphins. In between dives you sat on the edge of the boat, actually in the cold water, and I would have had to get a crew member to fetch my camera; it was so chaotic and noisy that I never really tried.

After our last time in the water we cruised around for another couple of hours and saw loads of dolphins, including Hector's dolphins and a couple of newborns - about the size of an American football. Some were doing Flipper-like acrobatics but never it seemed when I had my video camera ready! But here's what I got: